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by Lassarina



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24617056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: As the bunker collapses around them, Natasha remembers another building, another time.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Natasha Bingo





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**Author's Note:**

> Written for Natasha Bingo 2020

As what remains of Zola mocks them, and the device in her hand flashes warnings at her of incoming missiles, Natasha locks away fear and panic--she has time for neither--and quickly searches the room for options. There's the door at the back, the ancient computer banks, and the grate Rogers has pulled open at their feet.

He grabs her arm--she expected polite hemming and hawing from him rather than action--and they jump down, his shield raised above them, just in time. The ground shakes, the building groans, and the entire world seems to protest the impact of the missiles. Concrete and metal slam into the vibranium shield, and she feels the impact in Rogers' arm, in his body which he bends over her as firmly as he holds the shield to protect both of them.

The smell of dust and burning, the scream of tearing metal, and the shuddering impact as the building rains down around them jars her mind as much as her body, sends her reeling back years to a mission before SHIELD, an early mission for the Red Room. She and two other agents, Yuliya and Lyudmila, enter the apartment building, silent as cats. Their target is a former comrade, Barbara, who has been selling intelligence to the CIA. The directives are simple. Bring her back for retraining if possible; otherwise, kill her. It is not Natasha's first mission. Yuliya is young, young enough to still be excited at the opportunity to prove herself. Lyudmila is old enough that soon she will be training new agents instead of going into the field, a steadying presence at Natasha's left side. They have worked together before. Their weapons are ready. They expect resistance.

Barbara chose her safe house well, but not well enough. The apartment next door is empty, and the outside of the building rough enough to climb between them. It is a summer day in Moscow, not bitter, but the dust in the air is thick. Yuliya takes the outside task. Lyudmila listens to confirm that Barbara is still watching television as they saw her doing during their final reconnaissance and goes to work on the lock. She is very nearly silent, and very fast. Natasha keeps watch until the door is unlocked. Yuliya whispers the code word into their radios, and Lyudmila flings open the door, she and Natasha rolling in with guns drawn, coming up in a crouch aimed at the sofa where they had seen her sitting through binoculars from a hotel diagonally across the street.

Barbara is not there. There is a pile of explosives covered in a sheet and a wig, and Barbara is standing at the window with Yuliya, both of their guns pointed at Natasha and Lyudmila, and they are smiling. One dark-haired, one light, both standing with the easy grace and balance of the trained assassins they are.

The timer on the explosives is ticking down. Thirty seconds.

"What is this?" Lyudmila demands.

"The CIA has offered us immunity," Yuliya says.

Barbara says nothing, only looks at them with measuring dark eyes, then steps backwards out onto the tiny balcony and aside, shielded from their guns, and Yuliya follows suit on the other side of the window.

"Run," Lyudmila says tersely, and they try, but twenty-three seconds is not enough time to get clear of the building--they cannot go out the window or risk being shot, and Barbara planned her trap well. The explosives on the couch trigger others, and the whole building comes down on them as they are in the lobby, so close to safety and yet far from it. A huge metal beam falls toward them, and Natasha loses consciousness, and comes jolting back to herself with Steve Rogers' hand on her arm, and his dust-streaked face above hers.

"Natasha?" he asks her, his eyes concerned.

She doesn't talk about that day, not about Lyudmila's crushed body atop hers taking the brunt of the beam or dragging herself free with two broken legs, not to anyone and least of all not some too-good soldier, so she shakes her head and says only "Memories," and he takes her at face value, and shoves the debris off their hiding place and offers her a hand up like a gentleman, and Natasha locks away that memory once again behind layers and layers of locks, and reminds herself that she hasn't died yet.


End file.
